B10 3.3 #135 - Crash history?

[bsu]

Hi All,

Late last year I purchased a B10 3.3 - #135 via eBay for a pretty fair price and so far bar the ABS module needing a rebuild and some dodgy wiring in the front left wheel well for the wheel speed and brake wear sensors it's been great.

Back when I bought it I couldn't seem to get onto the Alpina Register website, so I didn't have much to go off in terms of looking into the history of the car bar an entry on the Alpina archive and an old sale advert from quite a few years back on gumtree, however recently I seem to be able to get on here I thought I'd sign up to the forum and search for the car to try find out more, which is when I stumbled across a post from 2019:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=23600&p=194536&hil ... 35#p194536

Back when I bought it the previous owner did mention there had been a cat N write off, but that it was just very minor cosmetic damage, however there are a few details about the car that seem odd, like the badge in the steering wheel airbag is too small, suggesting it's a replacement airbag with the wrong size badge added at a later date, and a windscreen cowl rubber end that's missing which seems like such an odd part to lose.

Regardless, I'm really really happy with it, and I have no intention of getting rid of it any time soon, but was just curious if anyone knows anything about the cars history, or even the crash that might have happened?

Cheers,

Bri

[Grumpyjohn1957]

Stumbled across this on another BM forum, it might help reveal some history for you.
Obviously the information will come at a cost.
If I were about to buy another car I'd be using this for sure.
Some horrendous examples being passed off as legit motors even by main dealers!

www.vcheck.uk

[Bob]

Unfortunately the only info I've seen was from the sales advert back when Paul bought #135. It mentioned CAT D back in 2004 but no specific info on what was damaged.

[woolley11]

I recently acquired a B10 3.3 Touring

This had a Cat D write off about 6 years ago. I’m fortunate with my car having only 1 real previous owner in 19.5 yrs and I have his phone number to chat to him about the car.

Apparently someone backed into him in the school car park damaging the N/S rear door and rear quarter panel/arch. The insurance company wrote it off on a cat D

So insurance company write offs with an older cars aren’t a big thing I don’t think - obviously not desirable. Some dodgy reasoning with insurance assessors sometimes. I used to know a chap doing the assessments - Cat A - Cat X (in the old days). If it was/could be possible there was hidden damage beyond what was visible, they cut their losses and wrote off in case there were comebacks later on damage that wasn’t apparent.

Yes if car is say < 7 years old it would affect value of car but not do much on a 20 year old one.

Sad tale for car nuts - a few years ago in the floods of 2007, a showroom with lots of desirable nearly new motors including BMWs, was subject to a low level fresh water flood. Nothing really damaged apart from tyres getting wet but insurance company ordered the lot to be crushed - they feared reports of effluent in the water and this could have led to claims against them down the line.

[ScooBeeFive]

Hi All,

Late last year I purchased a B10 3.3 - #135 via eBay for a pretty fair price and so far bar the ABS module needing a rebuild and some dodgy wiring in the front left wheel well for the wheel speed and brake wear sensors it's been great.

Back when I bought it I couldn't seem to get onto the Alpina Register website, so I didn't have much to go off in terms of looking into the history of the car bar an entry on the Alpina archive and an old sale advert from quite a few years back on gumtree, however recently I seem to be able to get on here I thought I'd sign up to the forum and search for the car to try find out more, which is when I stumbled across a post from 2019:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=23600&p=194536&hil ... 35#p194536

Back when I bought it the previous owner did mention there had been a cat N write off, but that it was just very minor cosmetic damage, however there are a few details about the car that seem odd, like the badge in the steering wheel airbag is too small, suggesting it's a replacement airbag with the wrong size badge added at a later date, and a windscreen cowl rubber end that's missing which seems like such an odd part to lose.

Regardless, I'm really really happy with it, and I have no intention of getting rid of it any time soon, but was just curious if anyone knows anything about the cars history, or even the crash that might have happened?

Cheers,

Bri

Looks a really nice car in those photos. You'll have to post some more. Agree with Bob that it's good to see the cloth interior with stripes - looks very special.

I note you are a fellow #135 too!

[bsu]

Thank-you I'll give vcheck.uk a go to see what I can find.

Really pleased with the car and I felt like I won the lottery when I found it, as spec wise it's pretty much exactly how I would have had it if I'd bought it new.

I will give it a bit of a clean up this weekend and try take some good photos to share

Cheers,

Bri

[4aceman]

Almost bought this car the other day!

I noticed the airbag badge being off also, seems to be an alpina badge glued onto a regular BMW airbag. The wood trim with the embossed Alpina logo was a different shade to the rest.

I wasn't a fan of the interior cloth, but maybe I would grow to like it, but it honestly felt a bit too "TfL" for me. Not a dealbreaker - could swap to a leather interior.

What put me off was the condition of the sills. Terribly repaired, slathered in underseal with rust coming through already. It was a big question mark on how much that would cost to sort. You can't see the extent of the rust until the repair patches are cut out and underseal removed.

The previous couple owners didn't seem to care for the car as much as they should have, which is a real shame. I hope another manual 3.3 comes up for sale! Rest of the car was sweet

[pauloopnorth]

It was my old car, that to be honest I really regret and still can't justify selling, at the time I felt a bit overwhelmed with having cars sat about doing nothing so I put a few up for sale just to try to thin things out a bit, and then unexpectedly they all sold within days, unfortunately with the one I would have preferred to sell first, not going till last.

Re the Airbag when I got the car, it had a BMW roundel, I'm guilty of sticking an eBay special over the top of it, and I think onto the ignition key that was also just standard.

I also noticed the section of dashboard wood that had the little gold Alpina inlay was ever so slightly different to the rest, but that's just how it came. Possibly re-varnished to protect the logo?

I also removed the standard grey headlining and replaced it with a black M one, as I preferred its match with the lovely cloth seats.

When I purchased it, I got very little info re the crash due to how long ago it was 2004 I believe, and possibly when it was under that period of long term ownership, (16 years I think they guy I got it off said it was) but after owning it a while and learning (on here when I joined the forum) that although it's an LCI it actually had the pre facelift front bumper. I now believe it was damaged on the left front corner. If you look at the inner wing / inner upper chassis rail near where the wing bolts in place on the passenger side of the car, you could see evidence of paintwork & overspray and even a plastic manufacturer tag/label that has been sprayed over in an off shade blue.

When I saw the car for sale, it had been in my eBay watch list many weeks, and the seller had made a mention within his description not to pay any attention to the recent previous MOT failure notices that were showing on its history and I think this really put off all potential buyers as its sounded potentially horrific, but one day I decided to give the guy a call and have a chat, listened to his explanation of the recent poor MOT report that he blamed on the garage that did the test trying to buy the car off him cheap, so decided to give it a go & I made an offer and he accepted.

When I sold it around a year or just over later as when I bought it, there were certain areas of the bodywork needed bits of attention, these were the passenger side A pillar as the lacquer was peeling, (strange place, but then it’s at that left front corner again) then on the roof above driver's side rear door also peeling, slight bubbles on both side sill just behind the front wheels, and possibly at rear in front of one wheel, but I certainly didn’t think it was very serious, Both rear wheel arches had been previously repaired, but I reckon it was a DIY rattle can job, as unless you kept on top of keeping it shiny clean and well-polished, they both quickly started turning dull and highlighting that they had been touched up, in all honesty I reckon they both needed cutting out & replacing to do it properly. Underneath seemed solid (back then) as opposed to what it led you to believe on the MOT history.
The next time I was aware of it, a link was posted somewhere of it for sale with no mention of it needing paintwork, and it had gained those large silver side stripes, so I assume somebody's had it in a body shop.

I wouldn't hesitate to have it back, unless It's now a real pig close up, I really loved the car it drove very well (but then, has there ever been an E39 that didn't?)

Apparently, there's only around 7/8 LCI 3.3 Manuals so it’s worth keeping and looking after it, personally I much preferred that striped Alpina cloth as opposed to what could look like just generic BMW leather.

[pauloopnorth]

[4aceman]

Very interesting to find out the history of the car. The current owner has had it sat for a year or so. The condition isn’t terrible. All the bodywork has been sorted, but it’s got a pretty bad dent in the bottom of the boot seal. It’s had filler slathered onto it and thats started cracking. Will likely need that bottom panel replaced.

The underside wasn’t awful I think, but it’s hard to tell with so much underseal on it. It seemed to be rusting pretty bad underneath it but nothing which couldn’t be sorted for enough money.

I did love the car but it just needed too much work, and would have been too much stress for me. Weeks at a body shop; who knows how deep the rust is, or if they will end up doing a proper job.